Box Score Game Summary / GameDay Preview

MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's hockey team went into the locker room after the first period Saturday leading host Concordia 1-0 — coach Terry Mannor, however, was far from pleased.

And his Cardinals heard about it between periods.

The “pep talk” seemed to do the trick, as SMU scored once in the second to push their lead to 2-0, then got a third-period hat trick from Haley Coolsaet (Grosse Island, Mich.), as the Cardinals cruised to a 5-2 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory.

“We played one of our worst periods of the season in the first period,” said SMU coach Terry Mannor, whose team had battled the Cobbers to a 3-3 tie in Friday's opening game of the two-game series. “We talked about it a bit between periods, played a little better in the second and then really turned it on in the third.

“It's nice to come away with three points — definitely a good start to the conference schedule.”

Cecilia Hardacker (Bloomington, Minn.) got the Cardinals on the board with her third goal of the season six minutes into the opening period, before Brittany Therrien (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) pushed the Cardinals' lead to 2-0 with her fourth of the season at 7:42 of the second.

The Cardinals then let Coolsaet do her thing, as the Cardinal freshman scored three times in the game's final 20 minutes to seal the SMU victory.

Kaye Collier (Hibbing, Minn.) picked up her fourth win of the season, stopping 34 shots — including all 16 she faced in the second period. Concordia goalie Tamara Twite, meanwhile, finished with 12 saves in the losing effort.

The Cardinals, who move to 1-0-1 in the MIAC and 4-1-1 overall, are back in action on Friday, traveling to Hamline for the first game of the teams' two-game MIAC series.